Apparatus for controlling a shared screen

Abstract

An apparatus for controlling a shared screen for shared applications, which can be shared, in a network system of a plurality of connected communication terminals, with other communication terminals when running on the terminals. The communication terminals include a window information acquiring portion for acquiring window information of the application to be shared while running on the terminals. Window controlling portion controls how windows are displayed on the communication terminals. The window controlling portion displays a window of shared space for displaying windows of shared applications collectively on the communication terminals. The windows of the shared applications are displayed as sub-windows in the window of shared space. For the “entire screen sharing type”, the apparatus includes a conference managing device having a conference information managing portion for managing information about communication terminals participating in those conferences, and shared screen controlling portion. An unused terminal for providing a shared screen is dynamically selected and provided. With the “application sharing method”, it can be recognized easily, whether a displayed application window is shared or unshared, and with the “entire screen sharing method”, a terminal for providing a shared screen can be selected optimally, so that the system resource can be used efficiently.

Description

[0001]This application is a Continuation of application number 09 / 358,547, filed Jul. 22, 1999, now abandoned.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]1. Field of the Invention[0003]The present invention relates to an apparatus for controlling a shared screen, wherein a plurality of conference participants share an application (sometimes abbreviated as “AP” in the following), which is executable from each communication terminal, to perform a conference via communication terminals connected to a network.[0004]2. Description of the Prior Art[0005]With the proceeding development of computer network systems in recent years, the progress of multimedia technology has promoted the dissemination of electronic conferences utilizing computer networks, so-called electronic conference systems and remote conference systems. Broadly classifying conventional configurations of electronic conference systems, there are the so-called “entire screen sharing” systems and “application sharing” systems.[0006]In e...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012]With regard to the above-described problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for controlling a shared screen, wherein, if constituting an electronic conference system of the so-called application sharing type, wherein shared application windows are provided among the participant communication terminals, it can be recognized easily whether the windows on the display device are windows of shared applications or windows of unshared applications, and it can be easily recognized who has the authority to operate the shared applications.

[0013]Furthermore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for controlling a shared screen, wherein, if constituting an electronic conference system of the so-called entire screen sharing type, wherein one communication terminal is a terminal for providing a shared screen that provides an entire screen, the configuration of the network is flexible, and a terminal for providing a shared screen can be selected automatically and optimally, and network resources can be used efficiently.

Problems solved by technology

First of all, in electronic conferences of the entire screen sharing type, a server communication terminals serving the shared screen provides its entire display screen as a shared screen to other client communication terminals, so that the server communication terminal cannot have its own local windows. Therefore, conference participants who use the communication terminal working as the shared screen server cannot open and use private applications. For all conference participants to use the shared screen and local windows for private applications, it is necessary to provide one extra communication terminal as a shared screen server terminal in addition to the communication terminals used by each conference participant.

If a terminal to provide a shared screen is settled on, the participant communication terminals have to connect to this terminal for providing a shared screen, the configuration of the network system is fixed and lacks flexibility, the resources distributed across the network cannot be utilized optimally, and the network costs tend to rise.

If the communication terminal serving as the terminal providing the shared screen among the conference participants is decided on before holding the electronic conference, the resources on the network can be utilized efficiently, but negotiation and confirmation procedures among the conference participants are necessary before the conference, which is inconvenient, and does not always lead to an optimal distribution of network resources, when seen from the entire network.

Next, electronic conference systems of the application sharing type pose the problem of inconvenience.

However, in an environment of multiple windows, where a plurality of windows are displayed on a display device, there is the problem that it is difficult to recognize whether an application displayed in a window is a shared application or not.

Moreover, it is necessary to determine separately for each shared application, whether the participant providing the shared application accepts operation authority for that application to other participants or not, and as the number of shared application increases, their operation becomes complicated and burdensome.

Images